[BoulderCouncilHotline] Accessory Unit Enforcement

[Carr, Thomas]

After an October 14, 2017 article in the Daily Camera, council has received several emails requesting a moratorium on enforcement similar to what was done during council's consideration of the cooperative housing ordinance.  First, council never adopted an enforcement moratorium with respect to cooperatives.  Staff agreed to exercise discretion to not bring enforcement cases while council considered the ordinance.  This happened after an extensive policy discussion, including a public hearing.

The cooperatives against which the city was acting were in licensed rental properties, which meant that they had met all of the obligations for issuance of a rental license, including compliance with all building codes and passing an inspection.

Council has yet to engage in any policy discussion regarding accessory dwelling units.  Nor has council seen the level of interest that was expressed regarding cooperatives.  It is impossible to predict what changes, if any, council will make after a full public process.  The unit about which the Daily Camera wrote could not satisfy the city's off-street parking requirements.  Parking is a major concern for many community members.  It was one of the issues to which council devoted significant attention during the consideration of the cooperative housing ordinance.   I would expect that council will hear a diversity of views with respect to the off-street parking requirement for accessory units.

As a result of resources provided by council, staff has been much more effective in enforcing against illegal rental properties.  Although there has always been a belief that there were many illegal accessory units, recent enforcement actions have provided solid evidence.  This year alone, enforcement staff has discovered over 90 illegal units.  Generally, these units are unlicensed and have never been inspected.  Thus, there is no assurance that these units meet the city's building codes.

City code enforcement efforts are intended to support life-safety and the quality of life for tenants, residents, and visitors to Boulder and ensure compliance the city's zoning, rental housing, and life-safety requirements.  One objective of this work has been to bring into compliance dwelling units that have been created in violation of city zoning, rental housing and life-safety requirements.

Presently, the city is also looking at its accessory dwelling unit and owner accessory unit standards from the perspective of potentially encouraging more of these housing types in the community.   In an effort to balance issues related to life-safety, habitability, quality of life requirements with the ongoing policy discussion around providing housing in the community, staff intends to continue its enforcement activities and using the following principles to guide its efforts:

*          Staff will continue to conduct enforcement activities as it has done in the past.

*          When violations are found, enforcement staff will work with property owners to bring illegally created dwelling units  into compliance with the city's regulations (including the zoning/land use, rental housing and building code regulations).

*          For units that cannot be brought into compliance, staff would use professional judgement to ensure that waste would not occur by suspending demolition work while the council has the policy conversation.  As part of this, the enforcement staff will consider life-safety, existing leases for tenants, and other relevant factors when determining enforcement action.  To the extent warranted by safety and practicality, staff will make an effort to get the unit unoccupied while the council has its policy discussion.

*          For units that have leases with occupants, staff will minimize the displacement of tenants for remaining lease terms, provided that the owner can demonstrate that the unit is safe and habitable under city life safety and rental license habitability standards.
In recent years, council has added resources to improve enforcement efforts and specifically address issues involving neighborhood impacts and equity.   8.6 FTE from the Planning, Housing + Sustainability and Public Works Departments work as one team to support code enforcement functions related to rental housing licensing enforcement, including short term rentals, zoning (including over-occupancy), marijuana and life-safety enforcement.  Of these, 5.0 FTE perform field enforcement duties, with one of these positions being a working supervisor. The remaining 3.6 FTE are administrative positions primarily focused on licensing and administrative support.  Two of these positions (1 field position and 1 administrative position) were added by the City Council in January 2016 in response to the implementation of Ordinance 8050 regulating short-term rentals. Two other positions (1 field position and 1 administrative position) were added by the City Council during the 2015 Budget process in order to provide additional resources for rental housing licensing enforcement.   In summary, 4.0 of the 8.6 FTE in this area have been added since 2015.   It is also important to note that there are other Code Enforcement resources in Public Works including 7 building inspectors (including a supervisor) and 4 right-of-way inspectors (including a supervisor).  Additionally, the Code Enforcement Unit in the Boulder Police Department and the Parking Services Unit in the Community Vitality Department provide focused enforcement in their respective areas.   All these city work units closely collaborate and coordinate efforts.

Please let me know if there are any questions about proposed enforcement.    Should Council wish to discuss this matter, that could be scheduled for the December 5th meeting.

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